One day vs Weekend Venue

Unless your culture typically does multi-day weddings, I’d stick with the ceremony and reception being on one day and that’s it. Some couples will host a welcome dinner/happy hour the day before and/or a post-wedding brunch the morning after, but neither of those are necessary either.

Keep the extra events optional. The rehearsal dinner is for those involved in the ceremony (bridesmaids and groomsmen). A welcome party/family reunion is something else entirely that is 100% optional. Many couples opt out of a day after brunch because guests either need to get to the airport or they are doing their own vacationing.


Also make sure that guests are staying where they choose and not tied to a specific overnight spot. If you want them to stay with you, which they may not feel comfortable doing for various reasons (privacy, etc), it is your responsibility to cover all costs and do not charge them to reimburse you. Many guests prefer to stay in a hotel of their choosing.

If you want to spend more time with guests, you can certainly either have a welcome dinner/party or an after wedding brunch the day after the wedding, but these would be optional events for your guests to attend.

If the wedding is local you can’t mandate where anyone, including bridal party stay the night before or after, or that they attend any additional events over an entire weekend . If there’s a rehearsal dinner the wedding party would traditionally attend but anything else besides the wedding itself is optional.

I hate full weekend events. I think it’s asking too much of your guests.

My thought process was more a venue where the wedding party can stay for the weekend because they would do the most traveling back and forth.

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Again, you can offer it as an option to them, but you can't require it.

View Quoted Comment Having a venue where they CAN stay is great. Requiring it or having required events over multiple days is the problem.

It may be best to let this happen naturally and let guests decide which days they're flying in among themselves. When the days get closer and you know their schedule, you can host something like a golf outting, boat trip, or a pool party and whoever makes it, makes it. A destination wedding should require more financially from the hosts because guests incl WP are paying more in time and money by traveling. I've been always the friend that flies in and I give 24-30 hrs to the couple unless international. Add airport time and my whole weekend is spent.